4、Henan Opera 豫剧：Jin Buhuan 金不换、Xu Fuxian 徐福先
This snippet was definitely the funniest thing I’ve seen in this year so far.

5、Huangmei Opera 黄梅戏：Zhou Shan 周珊、Zhou Yuanyuan 周源源

(6) Talk show My childhood Chinese Opera education 脱口秀《我的戏曲启蒙》 – Fang Qingping 方清平
This man graduated at NACTA, and now shares his memories. I always had a picture in my mind about how children are picked for this or that role, apparently I was right. “Your face is handsome, you will be trained as sheng!” “You are chubby, you’ll be trained as chou!” Fang, rather reluctantly, ended up as dan.

The Spring Festival Chinese Opera Gala of CCTV4 was a severely edited version, however, two excerpts appear only in this shorter edition, namely Chen Shaoyun’s costumeless Chasing Han Xin and Zhu Qiang’s Ganlu Temple. Both performers are my huge favorites, so I’m really grateful to the editor.
I converted the video to mp4 format with Handbrake, using the deinterlacing filter. Of course the original files are much better, but huge-ish (7GB) and best viewed on TV.

I downloaded the full version from the CNTV site, it comes in five parts. The screenshots below show the quality, I think it’s not bad. Five hours total, so don’t forget to pile up dumplings and soft drinks on your TV table if you’re adventurous enough to watch it in one go.

There are two bonus clips too, from the CCTV Spring Festival Gala: a performance by amateur jingju artists, including the adorable kid Duoduo (Li Peize), and a clip titled “New Drunken Concubine” – can you believe this elegant Guifei is actually a handsome boy?

I’m an unconditional Duoduo fan, that’s just natural he was my favorite from the show. I’m daring to say he grabbed the spirit of this character more firmly than some of the adult performers, what’s more, he’s a bit different every time, not just repeating the same performance as a robot. He appears in both the Chinese Opera Gala and the “plain” Gala, unfortunately the cameraman of the latter had a keen sense to zoom out or show the audience when a close-up of the kid was needed.
Li Zelin as underage Judge Bao was also very cute.

Duoduo as Xu Ce

Yuan Huiqin chose her excerpt wisely: the role of an armored elderly female warrior suits her much better than the miserable old lady of Golden Tortoise Fishing what she performed at the Shanghai Spring Festival concert this week. She’s not that typical old and slow-moving laodan…

I was happy that Dong Yuanyuan, my favorite Mei qingyi had the opportunity to show us her Drunken Concubine, and Li Shengsu was popularizing Female Generals of the Yangs instead.

The Red Cliff trio was excellent – and surprise of surprises, this time I liked Zhang Jianfeng more than Jin Xiquan.

Maybe Zhao Xiujun isn’t the most beautiful Zhang school qingyi of all times, and not as grandiose as Wang Rongrong, but I still like her artistic approach.

Zhao Xiujun

I don’t listen to Henan opera very often, but Li Shujian is mind-blowing, seemingly he doesn’t have to make extraordinary efforts to sing like that. I bet he will get a third Plum Blossom Award one time.

I already elaborated on in my own blog that something isn’t right about Yu Kuizhi nowadays… at least I feel so. Maybe his appointment as vice-president is too much of a burden, or he simply reached his limits, I don’t know. This time he came with an excerpt from Shang Tian Tai – there are plays he’s more an expert of, moreover, where is that sparkle in the eyes? There was a point when I thought he will fall asleep. I’m really, really disappointed, and sad as well.

Yan (Jupeng) school laosheng Chen Shengjie represents a style you don’t hear often, and he’s really good. His Zhuge Liang was so… Zhuge Liang-ish. I mean this is exactly how I imagine someone whose head is full of stratagems and serious thoughts.

Chen Shengjie

Li Baochun definitely has his own style, which couldn’t sweep me off my feet like his father’s did, but yet he’s fun to watch and Chang Qiuyue is one of my preferences – this duet was lovely.

Li Fengjie and Emperor Zhengde – men never change. Women never change.

Highlight of the show: Li Jun finally got rid of his metal kitchen scrubber-like hair that was a laughingstock of the public for way too long. Actually for the sake of a new play (also featuring Xiong Mingxia, I’ll upload it later), but the change is welcome.

In the Fragrant Flowers post, I mentioned Deng Min must be terrific in full traditional Beijing Opera costume and make-up. I told myself, “If I ever find a full-length opera with her starring in it, I’m posting it.”

Well here she is, along with a stellar cast consisting of Wang Rongrong, Song Xiaochuan, Zhang Jianguo, and Li Peihong in the Red-maned Fiery Horse (Hongzong liema). I originally downloaded it about a year or so ago because of Wang Rongrong, but she is not the main attraction here, I would say Song Xiaochuan in armor is, instead.

This opera is supposed to be a Valentine’s Day romance, but personally I find the storyline more than a bit confusing, because as Fern points out, it is in fact a monster-size play with almost always only a few acts performed together at once. And then actors playing one role are switched, so you have to keep score. This video also has a spoken presentation introduction rather than some titles stating the players, and my Chinese been limited, is the reason I held it back for so long.

This version is over two hours long, probably dating back a few years. Sound is fine, video is compressed and somewhat choppy and blurry. Still, it is quite watchable and I am posting the original file, although I converted it for myself with Handbrake-GTK to another more convenient format to rewind and fast forward in VLC.

There is a scene which is kind of surpriseing to see, where Li Peihong seems to be on stilts next to Wang Rongrong.

Here is a complete two hour concert filmed at the Shanghai Tianchan Yifu Theater.

This is yet another file found by my long rainy weekend computer backup exercise. The following song list by Fern of megapoxy.net, who kindly helped me sort out the performers, and in absolute overnight record time too! I am humbled.

This is a very interesting concert as it uses a full western orchestra along with the traditional Chinese instruments. It’s quite a mix bag, as it features the best known Beijing Opera performers like Li Shengsu, Yu Kuizhi, Wang Rongrong and Meng Guanglu along with some newer faces.

5.黑旋风李逵 安平 Hei Xuanfeng Li Kui (Li Kui, The Black Whirlwind) – by An PingAn Ping, first-class hualian of Shanghai Beijing Opera Theatre, got hisfirst Plum Blossom this month and I’m really happy about this, too. A 2011 New Year’s video with him, singing excerpt from The Zhao Orphan here.
(Bertrand) Fern’s not the only one to really like An Ping, there are several noticeable roars of approval from the audience during this performer’s aria.

(Bertrand) What a gorgeous gown! Have you ever seen anything so marvellous? No doubt this is from a Chinese designer, too. And Li Shengsu never wears a gown twice.

11.探阴山 孟广禄 Tan Yinshan (Visiting Yin Mountain) – Meng GuangluI read the story to this opera previously, and finally the penny droppedthat Zha Pan Guan (Beheading the Underworld Judge) you posted here:http://operabeijing.com/?p=597 is based on this Qiu schoolclassic with a few minor changes.

In Meng Guanglu’s words, who plays Bao Zheng in the new show, it’s “old thing with new taste”. This role isextremely hard, requires great singing skills. When Qiu Shengrong wassinging this role, his fans were listening as if they were on drugs.

I wrote a summary earlier, here it is, maybe you want to add it:

The story is set during Song Renzong’s reign. At a cheerful Lantern festivala young woman, Liu Jinchan, is separated from her family in the crowd.Walking home alone, she encounters a scoundrel, Li Bao, who tries to rape herbut fails. In the end he strangles the girl to death. To cover his tra cks, Li Baomoves the corpse to Yan Chasan’s doorway to frame him. The case isn’tinvestigated properly, Yan Chasan gets arrested and sentenced to death. Hefiles an appeal to Bao Zheng, complaining about the injustice.

Because thecircumstances of Liu Jinchan’s death are unclear, Bao Zheng descends into theunderworld to ask the underworld judge, Pan Guan, to check the case in theregister of life and death. Pan Guan’s book of death clearly indicates that the rapist andmurderer was Yan Chasan.

Bao Zheng starts his own private investigation, going tothe Yin Mountains to ask Liu Jinchan’s ghost about the truth. The ghosttells him that the real culprit was Li Bao, that Li Bao’s maternal uncle isPan Guan and the corrupt judge altered the register of life and death withoutauthority!

Bao Zheng gets furious about the fraud and orders Pan Guan tocorrect the book. Pan Guan doesn’t admit his fault, finally Bao Zheng getsangry and beheads him. Returning to the world of the living, he releases YanChasan and beheads Li Bao too.

14.大登殿 李炳淑 Da Deng Dian (The Great Enthronement) – Li BingshuSame excerpt you just posted w/ Li Shengsu, great stuff for makingcomparisons.Interesting about Li Bingshu is she’s singing in Mei style and also in Zhangstyle simultaneously.Two of her teachers were Yan Huizhu and Wei Lianfang, both direct disciplesof Mei Lanfang. Here’s a great photo of the latter w/ Mei Lanfang:http://a0.att.hudong.com/10/65/01300000222260121952651003416.jpg

(Bertrand) She’s a dead ringer for my Hungarian mother. Mom! Is that you?!?

(Bertrand) Fern and I keep disagreeing on Yu’s neckties. This one I think would have been better a uniform blue rather than with a blue pattern. But both of us agree about Yu Kuizhi: his singing is finer than fine. I myself think he is the best at what he does.

So your mother has a secret life as Beijing opera actress? Wang Peiyu fooled me for weeks. I watched the complete opera she’s singing this excerpt from and I thought her voice is different because she’s a very young boy. I even was showing my new finding to my fiance, telling him, “Look, this boy should be very young but he’s very good!” And this is her off-stage style too, I’ve seen photos of her while recording in studio and she was wearing men’s jeans and tartan patterned shirt.
I realized she’s female only when I read her profile. ><If you don’t like this necktie of Yu Kuizhi, just wait until I post the old video I found, he’s wearing a terrible oh-so-80s suit.
Poor man, I’m always ranting about his outfits, but really what else to criticise? His voice surely not.Wang Rongrong is frequently singing The Top Scholar, besides Riverside Pavilion, Romance of West Chamber and Meeting by Poetry, as typical Zhang school play.Li Shengsu never wears a gown twice? Now I HAVE TO find two performances with the same gown! ;P